In this edition of the cleantech news roundup, we have news about the 2018 LEAF safety score, Paul Elio’s new cryptocurrency, first delivery of an Electra Meccanica Solo, an electric Aston Martin Lagonda, death by chocolate, EU plastic recycling and pesticide ban, environmental conservatism, and more.

In today’s fast-paced internet media environment, you’re bound to miss a lot of news if you aren’t obsessively following cleantech and clean transport topics across a great number of sites. The good news is that in addition to the obsessive coverage we maintain here on CleanTechnica, the team at Important Media also publishes their work on a handful of our other sites as well, which is where you’ll find stories that don’t necessarily fit perfectly on CleanTechnica, but which are still relevant to the bigger picture of building a cleaner and healthier future for us all. And if you want even more cleantech news, join our LinkedIn group CleanTech Enthusiasts, and consider supporting us on Patreon.

Clean Transport

From pestering Elon Musk to earning 5 stars on the tough new European NCAP safety tests, the new-for-2018 Nissan LEAF just keeps on giving you more reasons to love it. What’s more, the little EV scored a 93% rating for adult safety- second only to the ultra-safe 2018 Volvo XC60 (so far).

Last week, Electra Meccanica took a major step forward in becoming a for-real car company by simply delivering a production car to an actual customer. It was the company’s first US delivery of the small but quick Solo electric three-wheeler. The delivery was handled personally by former IndyCar driver Dominic Dobson, who is EM’s Solo representative on the West Coast.

Whenever I am on the road, it seems quite bizarre that every one of the hundreds of vehicles I see, has a pipe poking out of the back, pumping out pollution, and CO2 constantly. Do people not think about where all of that is going?

The US-based recreation vehicle manufacturer Winnebago Industries is partnering with Motiv Power Systems for the launch of a new electric commercial vehicle platform, and will be launching a model in relation to that new platform.

Aston Martin has big plans to take on Ferrari and establish itself as the global super car brand by taking on the Italians head-on, both on the road and on the track. Like everyone else, however, Aston must contend with the biggest industry disruptions of them all: Tesla and Elon Musk.

Volkswagen will soon be celebrating a major milestone- the fortieth anniversary of the VW Jetta. Being the company’s most popular model in North America, the success or failure of the Jetta is (or, at least, was) the success or failure of VW.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the Hyundai Veloster. With its asymmetrical doors and a bulldog stance that was evident from the very start, I feel like it’s hard not to love the little Veloster. “It won’t last,” I said, the first time I saw one up close. “It’s too weird and too cool- it can’t possibly be allowed to live.” But live it does, and live it will, because Hyundai just launched an all-new Veloster for 2019.

A 60-acre site at Michigan Technical Resource Park (MITRP) in Ottawa Lake is now slated to be transformed by the Toyota Research Institute into a closed-course self-driving vehicle testing facility, following the filing of construction permits last week with relevant authorities.

Imagine you’ve invested your hard-earned savings into a company. It shouldn’t be too hard to imagine, as- I’m sure- many of you have, either directly or through your 401k. Next, imagine asking that company a perfectly reasonable and relevant question, and having the CEO of that company insinuate that you were a “boring bonehead.”

Elio Motors is that annoying inside joke that you just wish everyone would forget about, but they don’t. Elio himself appeared in Shreveport a few days ago to reiterate that he believes his crypto offering will make Elio Motors “cashflow positive.”

Earlier this week Tesla CEO Elon Musk took some heat from industry investors and short-sellers for refusing to answer pointed questions about Tesla’s finding requirements going forward. Musk responded to questions about his behavior by warning people who are betting against the company on the stock market that they are about to get ‘burn’, then followed up those warning by investing a further $10 million of his own money back into TSLA shares.

Clean Energy

Despite its recent acquisition of embattled solar manufacturer SolarWorld Americas, SunPower this week reported mixed results in its first quarter financial results, succeeding in narrowing its net loss and beating earnings expectations, but could not promise much in the way of strong guidance.

Clean Earth

Pakistan’s environmental protection agency has now begun installing air quality monitors throughout the country and begun better enforcing laws by warning various factories and brick kilns (and vehicle owners) about excess emissions, according to local reports.

The European Commission voted last week to ban three common pesticides that are thought to contribute to the decline in the bee population — imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam. Taken together, they are the most used pesticides in the world.

The European Union has this week formally adopted Member States’ annual greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2021 to 2030 which, though they differ by country, will deliver a 30% reduction in EU emissions on 2005 levels across a wide variety of industries.

Representatives from the Gwich’in Nation, national environmental groups, and institutional investors participated in a telephone press briefing on Monday, May 14, 2018. The briefing unveiled a new effort to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from destructive oil and gas drilling.

It was predictable that one day Adisa Azapagic, who studies the carbon footprint of various foods, would get around to chocolate. Little was known about the environmental impact of producing that guilt-and swoon-inducing pleasure, and for many, ignorance was bliss. “My husband wasn’t amused when I suggested he consider switching to dark chocolate,” which has a smaller carbon footprint than milk chocolate, she said. “He said it was a divorcing issue.”

The problem with a Bike To Work Day or Week is that to enable people to bike to work you need infrastructure that works all year. Just like the car gets a lane and supposedly some storage at the office, there has to be support. Yet almost every Bike Commuting 101 and How to Bike To Work guide treats the person on a bike as if they are Amundsen on the way to the South Pole — carry everything you need from baby wipes to tire repair kits.

Smart Aquaponics Build:

1000 heads of lettuce per week! UFG teams up with Mozilla Gigabit fund to build a Smart Aquaponics system in UFG educational greenhouse behind the UFG makerspace east of downtown Kansas city. Utilizing our hyperfast google fiber internet connection allows us to fill the greenhouse with sensors and controls creating a huge educational opportunity for the kids of one very disadvantaged neighborhood as well as creating a smarter farm and a huge potential savings in utilities and wasted feed. This $23,000 grant project in itself has the current capacity of creating 1000 ripe heads each week. year round.

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